Chot Reyes.
National basketball coach Chot Reyes concedes that cutting his 17-man pool to 12 for the FIBA Asia Championships from August 1-11 in Manila ?is the hard part.?
However, Reyes said ?that going to be a good problem? noting that he had asked ?every guy, before I name you, are you willing to go through this whole thing without any assurance.?
Answering questions about why certain players were not in the 17-man pool, Reyes echoed the statement of PBA chairman Robert Non who was quoted as saying ?let's just focus on those who made it, lets not worry anymore about those who didn?t make it.?
The presence of the high-flying Japeth Aguilar is seen by many as more than enough compensation for the absence of Arwind Santos while Reyes himself said that towering center Junmar Fajardo ?might be the future of Philippine basketball if he gets used to FIBA basketball often enough.?
Coach Reyes who steered Talk N? Text to PBA championships said that ?with Japeth and (Mark) Pingris there that covers what we lose from Arwind.?
Reyes also explained the non-inclusion of National University?s Bobby Ray Parks. He said that under tge program of former coach Rajko Toroman ?we got a group of college guys together for three years but whenever they got to the men?s competition they were like boys.?
He noted that ?these are 23-24 year olds playing against 28-30 year olds from the middle east, that?s why in the end even Toroman had to relent and had to get nine PBA players because that was what we saw. When it comes to the top FIBA international teams the maturity is very important. You can?t play boys against men.?
Reyes said the players will hold their first practice at the ULTRA on Monday at 8:00 p.m.
Comments
Share your thoughts on the above article by Ronnie Nathanielsz.